The present invention relates to hazardous duty garments and, more particularly, to a firefighter garment having heat- and flame-resistant pads in areas of high wear and compression.
Protective garments are designed to shield a wearer from a variety of environmental hazards, and firefighter garments are representative of such garments. A conventional firefighting ensemble comprises a turnout coat and pant, each of which includes an outer shell, a moisture barrier located within the outer shell, a thermal liner located within the moisture barrier and an innermost face cloth layer. The outer shell typically is constructed of an abrasion-, flame- and heat-resistant material such as a woven aramid material, typically NOMEX.RTM., KEVLAR.RTM., or Z-200.RTM. (all are trademarks of E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Inc.) or a polybenzamidazole such a PBI.RTM. (a trademark of Celanese Corp.) fiber material. The moisture barrier typically includes a semipermeable membrane layer which is moisture vapor permeable but impermeable to liquid moisture, such as CROSSTECH.RTM. (a trademark of W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.). The membrane layer is bonded to a substrate of flame- and heat-resistant material, such as an aramid or PBI.RTM. material.
It is often desirable to provide padding to the knee portions of firefighting pants, or to the elbow/forearm or shoulder areas of firefighting turnout coats to provide extra cushioning against compression or protection from heat for the firefighter's knees, elbows, forearms and/or shoulders. Such cushioning is particularly useful when a firefighter is kneeling or crawling, or is carrying equipment such as a ladder, a hoseline or SCBA equipment, and is also useful to absorb blows and other shocks that may be encountered in hazardous duty situations. In such situations the weight of a firefighter, or the weight of the equipment, is concentrated in a small area, which compresses the thermal liner in that area and thereby significantly reduces its insulating ability.
A problem with the conventional pads for use with firefighting garments is that a relatively low-cost pad that is relatively simple to attach to a firefighting garment and that meets the NFPA (National Fire Protection Associate) 1971 standard, incorporated herein by reference, (which require substantial heat- and flame-resistance as well as specified tear strength) is not available. There is also a problem with many conventional knee- and/or elbow-pads in that they provide relatively little additional thermal protection to the knees and/or elbow portions of the garment when compressed. Accordingly, such conventional elbow-, shoulder- and/or knee-pads do little to prevent burns in the knees, shoulders and/or elbows of firefighters resulting from the loss of insulating ability caused by compression of the garment in those areas. For those conventional elbow-, shoulder- or knee-pads that do provide additional thermal protection, there exists a problem of such thermal protection breaking down over time due to damage, compression and/or abrasions to the pads. A further problem with conventional elbow-, shoulder- and/or knee-pads is their tendency to absorb water or otherwise retain substantial quantities of water. Saturated pads, when exposed to thermal energy conduct that heat at far greater rates than insulation which does not store water.